GAY, SOPHIE

in full Marie-franoise-sophie Nichault De Lavalette Gay born July 1, 1776, Paris, Fr. died March 5, 1852, Paris French writer and grande dame who wrote romantic novels and plays about upper-class French society during the early 19th century. The daughter of a bursar to the Count de Provence (later King Louis XVIII), she married twice, the second time to a financier named Gay. Her first published writings, in 1802, yielded a novel, Laure d'Estell, but she did little other writing for 11 years, during which she led a somewhat notorious life. Among her numerous later novels were Lonie de Montbreuse (1813), Malheurs d'un amant heureux (1818, 1823; Misfortunes of a Happy Lover), Le Moqueur amoureux (1830; The Amorous Mocker), La Physiologie du Ridicule (1833; The Physiology of Ridicule), and Le Mari confident (1849; The Confident Husband). Mme Gay also wrote for the theatre, both drama and comic operas, with words and music; the play La Duchesse de Chteauroux (1834) received great success. During the reign of Louis-Philippe, Mme Gay's salon was one of the most fashionable in Paris.